The Bozeman weekly chronicle. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1883-1889, 1887-07-13
THE OLD MAN.


standing his appearance Of misery and in.
frmity.
At the age of II lie had had both legs
crushed by n vehicle passing on the Var.
vile highway. Since that tinc ho ha,
begged along the ruNds. from ono farm
yard Ia another, balancing himself upon
his crutclics, tho constant use Of which
hal pushed up his shoulders to q level
with his ears. His head seemed as II
buried between two hills.
In the villages they would give him
scarcely anything; he was too well known;
people had become tired of the sight of
him; they had seen him for forty long
years going from farm honse to inrn,
housp, pulling his ragged nnd ,leforlncti
bmiy along, with thp aid Of his two wooden
logs, Still he did not want to 90 away,
because I'LL Of tho world no knew ANYTHING
about was TINT one little patch Of country,
with Its three or four villages, through
which he had been dragging his miserable
existence lie had laid down d frontier
line for his heggary, and he could pcycr
hnyo gone prInni fhn' iilnils which he had
never pcruston,el himself to cross.
ie did not knew whether tho world cx-
Tended very fur beyond the line of trees
which had always been the boundary Of
his vision. He did not even ask himself
whether It did or did not. AUD when the
peasants weary Of seeing him always hob
bling along their fields or sitting down be-
side their diiches, would shout out tn him,
hWhy DON'T You go tq lhp pther villages
Instead Of always erutching about hcre;'
no would never make q reply, but simply
take himself Oft, full Of q vague fear OF
tho unknown--the fear OF poor creature
who breads thousand different things in
sort of confused way-new faces, abuse,
the suspicious observation Of people who
diq not know him and the getthirlnes who
walked tho road two by two, and Tho very
sight Of whom made him instinctively
stink behind bushes or stone heaps,
Whenever he sRw then, coming in the
distance, glittering in their uniforms
under tho sunlight, he would suddenly de,
yelop an extraordinary ngtllly-=the agility
Of m0nstef-tn seeking o hiding place.
lie would tumble down from his crutches
Letting himself fall fiat like rag; and
then he would roll himself all up into n
ball, become quite little become invisible,
lie fiat like hare in its lair SO as 10 make
bis brown rags seem part of the ground
that they resembled in color,
Notwithstanding he had never had any
trouble with them In his Life, But he had
the instructive fear Of them in his blood,
us though he had inherited the fear and
cunning of those parents whom he had
never known, A. ''
He had pd refu9e, no roof, no hut, nt
shelter. He slept anywhere in summer
and IN winter he slipped under barns OF
into stables with astonishing address. He
always got away in the morning before
any one had suspected his presence. He
knew all the holes through which hs could
get into the farm buildings; and as the
constant use of crutches had given him ex-
traordinary power in his arms, he was
able to climb hand over hand into tho hay
lofts, whore he wonld often remain three
or fotir days at q time without moving
especially when he had been able to col.
leet some provisions upon his rounis.
Ho lived like the beasts Of tho fields, In
tho midst of men, without knowing any
body. without loving anybody-the feel
ing toward him among the peasants was
simply one of indifferent contempt and
resigned hostility. They had hioknamed
him Gloehe tha holl because he swung
along betwoon his orutohes like a hell be-
tween its supports,
For two whole days he had eaten moth
Ing at nll. Nnbotly would give him bit
more. People hal finally got tired of him
The peasant women ut their doors would
scream out to him from n distance when
they saw him coming:
"Get away from here, you old clodhep-
per! Didn't give you n piece of bread
only three days agofh
Then he would pivot round upon his
crutchcs and take himself to the neigh
boring house, only to be there received In
like manner,
From door to door the women cried
out:
"One can't undertake to feed that
loafer all the year round, anyhowr,
Nevertheless the loafcr hal to get sQme-
thing to eat every day,
HG bad gone all through Saint Hilairc,
Farrille anil Les Billettes without Icing
able to get ono copper or ono hard crust
OF bread. There was no hopc for him,
consequently, except at tTournolles; but he
had to travel two leagues on the public
highway to get there; and he felt already
SO weak that he could hardly drag himself
along, having his stomach as empty as his
pocket.
Nevertheless he started.
1t was December; cold wind PLAYED
over the fields, and whistled through the
naked branches; while the clouds were
rushing through low hanging, dark sky,
ps Il hurrying God knows where.
The cripple moved on slowly, lifting up
his crutcles with painful effort, relying
also little upon the extremity of the one
leg left him, terminated by clubfoot and
clad with rag.
From time TO time he would sit down
on the edge of the roadside ditch, and rest
himself n little. Hunger had created
strange distress in his dull and Vague
mind. lie hal but one definite idea-''to
cat;" but how to get anything to eat he
did not know
For three whole hours he worried slowly
along the road; then, when at last he
caught sight of the village trees, he quick
cncd his movements.
The first peasant he met and asked aims
of, answered him:
"You here again, you old fraud, Seems
that m never going to be rid of you"
And Clochc went off. At every door
he was roughly received, and turned away
without being given anything. Patient
and persistent, he nevertheless continued
his round. He could not collect one cent.
Then he visited the farms, shamblins
over the rain soaked clay of the ilelds-so
eytcnuated that he could not lift his
rrutchcs properly, io was driven from
every gate, 1t was one Of those cold and
dismal days when hearts arc contracted.
when minds are irritable, when the dis.
position is gloomy, when no hand is vol
lntarily extended either to give or to help.
When he had visited all the houses he
knew, he let himself fall his whole length
at the edge Of ditch beside the farm
yard q Maitre Chiquct. lie ''unhurg
himself" rs they used to say in order to
describe the manner in which he let h,.,.
self tumble down from between his Lich
crutchcs by letting them slip up through
his arms. And he lay there long time
motionless, tortured by hunger, but too
much stupcfied to really appreciate his
fathomless misery.
He was waiting for something, he knew
not what, with that vague hope which
constantly persists in each and all of us.
He waited there, at the corner of that
farm yard, for that mysterious aid we arc
always expecting to receive either from
heaven or from men, without asking how
or why or by whom it is to come. A troop
of black chickens came by, seeking their
nourislmcnt n that earth which nourishes
all creatures, AT every second they pecked
at grain or some invisible insect, and
continued their slow, sure search.
Cloche looked at them without thinking
of anything; then he got-rather into his
stomach than into his head-the idea, or
rather the sensation, that one of those
things would be good to eat roasted over a
brushwood fire.
No suspicion that he was about to com
init IL theft ever once occurred to him. He
chi n Gtn "a 1.